


sweet music

by silverislander



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Feelings Realization, Fluff, and dina is no exception!, only rated t bc ellie doesnt know how to construct a sentence without the fuck word in it, set a couple months or so before their kiss at the dance, we wlw sure do love guitarists huh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:54:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27143443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverislander/pseuds/silverislander
Summary: She’s not really even listening to the words of the song, but rather focused on the sound of her guitar, now newly appreciating how much work she has to put into it, and its perfect blend with her voice.And then Dina looks over at her for just a second, and it’s like seeing her for the first time.When did Ellie get this attractive?
Relationships: Dina & Ellie (The Last of Us), Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 35
Kudos: 139





	sweet music

**Author's Note:**

> title from hozier's song of the same name.

“Your house is a mess,” Dina remarks, looking around from her sprawled-out spot on Ellie’s bed. It was true- her place always had mismatched and fraying blankets haphazardly tossed across the couch, dishes just starting to pile up by the sink- but it wasn’t that she wasn’t alright with it. It felt like home, like someone actually lived there. Jesse's mother’s immaculately clean house didn’t quite have the same feel to it. She just took it as another opportunity to tease her friend.

“Like yours is any better,” Ellie throws back behind her. She’s just locking the door, and she walks over and throws herself onto the bed. “Fucking Christ, it’s so goddamn hot out.”

“Eloquent.”

“I try.”

Ellie wrangles herself out of her overshirt, leaving herself in an old black tank top and revealing the tattoo she hasn’t shown anyone else yet. It’s technically fine to leave uncovered by now, but she’s been paranoid and insistent about her long sleeves for as long as Dina’s known her, so it makes sense that she would still be covering up in the hundred-degree heat. Besides, there’s also the matter of who gave it to her- Ellie and Cat have only been separated for two weeks or so, and Dina knows she’s taking it hard. She keeps trying to get Ellie not to love so goddamn hard, but at the end of the day she’s still Ellie, and that means she’s very much a zero-or-one-hundred kind of person.

“Really though, we shouldn’t even have been out there.” She stretches her arms, rolls her broad shoulders, and it’s not like Dina’s _staring_ but- well, Cat really did do well on that tattoo. “It’s too hot to get jack shit done. Pete almost passed out again.”

“Pete always passes out,” Dina scoffs. “He’s so small and he won’t bring water with him unless he’s leaving the walls. It’s so stupid.”

“Still! It could’ve been someone else, or me. I’m not a whole lot bigger, you know.” Her eyes light up suddenly, and she starts swaying dramatically, getting ever closer to Dina. “In fact, I’m not feeling so well, ugh-”

“Ellie,” Dina warns, holding back laughter as she scoots away.

“I could just faint right now!” And she falls into Dina, barely suppressing giggles. They both topple, now lying on their backs. When her friend starts to squirm underneath her, Ellie presses a little harder, elbowing her back down again.

“Let me up!”

“Sorry, I can’t, I’m unconscious.”

“I’ll make you unconscious!” With that, Dina jabs into her side quickly, making Ellie groan and roll off of her to clutch at her stomach.

“Low blow,” she complains. Dina just smiles angelically in response and flips her off.

A few moments of silence pass. They can hear the workers calling and laughing outside through the open window and the creaking of the old bed frame as Ellie lies there, catching her breath. The room is never usually this well-lit- Dina likes to joke that Ellie has gotten too used to living in the wild to have luxuries like daylight- but today, sunlight streams in through the window and catches the dust motes, heavy and warm and inviting.

“I’m bored,” Dina starts, sitting up again.

“And what am I supposed to do about that?” Ellie asks. Her voice is slow and not quite raspy, and it’s strange how it’s almost possible to hear Joel in it- a hint of his accent, his drawl. When she’s relaxed, she draws out her vowels in a way that’s uncanny for someone who’s never even been down south. If Dina didn’t know better, she would’ve never questioned that they were indeed related.

“Entertain me.”

Ellie blows out a breath that doesn’t quite move the stubborn strand of red hair out of her face. “How?”

“Well, I didn’t really think about that,” she mumbles, scanning the room quickly. It’s an odd, small sort of a house- her kitchen is also her living room is also the first room you walk into, the bathroom is nearly hidden away in a closet somewhere and the bedroom doubles as everything else she needs, not that Ellie even sleeps there most nights; she’s always passed out on the couch by the time Dina comes over. Not one of the chairs matches in any room, and Ellie’s made a poor attempt at covering holes and cracks in the wall with scavenged posters, mostly from things she doesn’t know a thing about. When Dina had first spotted the ones on the ceiling above her bed (more specifically, the blonde with the skimpy red bikini), she had mocked Ellie mercilessly for weeks. Ellie had turned a lovely red every time, mumbling something about “not even my type anyways” and “I just had to cover the leaky part”.

Her eyes suddenly land on her guitar.

“You should teach me to play.” Before Ellie can argue, Dina’s up and reaching for the instrument. She might not know much about music, but she’s pretty sure it can’t be that tough. She’s seen her friend’s hands fly over the strings so easily, it was clearly second nature to her. She could probably pick it up too if she tried hard enough.

She’s sure Ellie will protest, or try to talk her down, at least, but instead she considers it for a moment before smiling slightly. “Why not? Come on over.”

She does as requested, bringing the guitar with her. Ellie takes it gently, sliding it into her own lap.

“Alright, so the first thing you need is-” her hand brushes a string and it lets out a soft sound that seems to displease her. She makes a face and reaches for the pegs at the top. “Well, first you’ve got to be in tune. Didn’t think I was that bad. Fuck.” She hums under her breath and twists the peg just a little.

“Was... that not right?” Dina asks, leaning in.

“Uh, definitely not. That was so flat, oh my god.”

“How do you know?”

“It sounds wrong.” She shrugs, like that makes any sense at all.

“You can just tell?” Maybe this was going to take a little more effort than she was originally planning on.

“Yeah, can’t you? It’s supposed to be a B, that was nearly a B-flat.” Dina is reminded, suddenly, of her older sister complaining about “putting the alphabet in math”. She is exactly as confused now as she was when Talia had tried to explain herself.

Ellie seems to notice this, and waves her hand. “It doesn’t matter. So each string has a letter name, and that’s also what you call the sound it makes. They get higher going this way. It goes E, then A, then D, G, B, E.”

“E again?"

“Yeah, it’s higher, but it's still the same note.” _What_. “Here, you take it. Try this.”

For the next few minutes, Ellie explains chords and the notes and the string names (again, because Dina keeps forgetting). After a horrible, slow, boring procession Ellie calls a scale, her fingers start to hurt.

“Is this supposed to be painful?” Dina asks half-jokingly.

“I mean, it probably will hurt a little. You get callouses after a while, though, and then it kinda stops. See?” She moves to take Dina’s hand gently, moving it over the tips of her fingers and then the palm of her hand to demonstrate. Sure enough, the skin is rougher where she said it would be, and warm too. Dina looks up and smiles at her, and for some reason Ellie turns pink, just a little, and slowly takes her hand back, which makes Dina almost regret whatever she did wrong.

“So, uh, chords. This is how you build up to an actual song. You’ve got to put a few of your fingers in different spots on the frets and then just strum with your other hand.” She talks about it, but it doesn’t seem to click. Dina keeps forgetting whether the strings go from top to bottom and the order (again), so Ellie shakes her head and moves to sit behind her.

“Here, I’ll show you. Like this.” Her scarred hand curls around Dina’s own, pressing on each finger gently. Ellie always seems to be handling her like that, like she’s scared of hurting her. Ellie’s hands are bigger, and where hers wrap around the neck of the guitar easily, Dina has to stretch for it, putting her wrist into a weird position that makes Ellie laugh. She feels the sound of it thrumming behind her, her stomach pressed into her back, as she fixes the problem as best she can.

“And that’s a C chord.” Dina doesn’t think Ellie’s trying to speak right into her ear, but she does, and her breath is warm there. She tries a few more- a G, an A-minor, and a sad attempt at an F- before giving in.

“Okay, I think my fingers are going to start bleeding. I’m out.”

“Amateur,” Ellie laughs, sliding away and taking the instrument back into her own lap.

“It doesn’t sound like when you do it. You make it sound so much prettier, and easier too. I bet you’re just trying to make this harder for me,” Dina whines.

“I’m not, I swear! What I’m doing,” she adds, “is actually harder. I’m fingerpicking, so I’m playing chords the same as you, but I don’t hit every string at once. You’ve got to move both hands for that. Plus, it hurts more, you big baby.”

“You’re so mean to me.”

“You love it.” Ellie absentmindedly starts up a melody, barely looking at the guitar.

“Why don’t you just play for me instead?”

Ellie opens her mouth to protest, but Dina’s ahead of her, already looking at her with an exaggeratedly pleading face and the puppy-dog eyes she’s mastered specifically for important moments like these. She doesn’t even need to speak- Ellie sighs, rolls her eyes and adjusts the instrument on her knees.

“You got a song in mind?”

“Not really.”

“You aren’t planning things out well today.”

“Fuck off. Just… I don’t know, something you think I’ll like. You’ve got pretty good taste.” Ellie smiles in response, looking up to the ceiling before nodding decisively.

“Okay.”

She starts, quick and quiet, and right away it’s different from what Dina’s heard from her before; it’s not the sad sort of tune she seems to favour. This is light, like skipping, and it’s almost the kind of music she could dance to. Dina turns to look away for just a moment and smiles at the floor, and in that same second Ellie starts singing.

She sings in a way that’s just barely different from how she speaks- she is soft now where she’s usually all edges, and every word comes out intentional and reverent, almost- but her voice is always the same, that low, rough half-whisper. Dina knows it’s not something Ellie’s proud of, something she thinks is “too much”, but she loves it just the same. She knows there are people who think it’s just as handsome as she does. She keeps looking around as if to distract herself, keep herself calm since she’s oddly nervous all of a sudden. She’s not really even listening to the words of the song, but rather focused on the sound of her guitar, now newly appreciating how much work she has to put into it, and its perfect blend with her voice.

And then Dina looks over at her for just a second, and it’s like seeing her for the first time.

When did Ellie get this attractive?

The sunlight is brightening as it starts to set outside, and it sets a cast over her, painting her in gold. Her face has softened as she plays, so far from the sullen, hard expressions she usually settles into, and Dina’s eyes are drawn to her freckles, to her lips, to her little scars, to where her brow is furrowed in concentration. She wants to reach out and touch, to take her face in her hands. Her eyes seem greener in the golden light, shining with so much affection and focus, and she lets herself wish for a moment that Ellie would look at her so she could see that fully and pretend it’s directed at her. Then there’s her auburn hair, loose for once, set on fire by the sunlight, and she feels the urge not to brush back the unruly strands at her temples like she usually does, like a friend might, but to run her hands through it, to feel her shudder and tilt her head back beneath her touch. And her _hands_ \- Dina watches her calloused hands and her long fingers, and she touches the strings of the guitar the same way she touches Dina, so softly and with so much care. Dina knows she’s staring by now, but she looks... not like a different person, but so new all the same, that it strikes the breath out of her lungs. She doesn’t know where any of this is coming from, but she wants to memorize this sight.

And then Ellie starts smiling as she sings (only slightly, she only ever seems to smile in halves), and it’s so disarming. Dina loses herself in another reality for a minute, one where she just gives in and moves the guitar away and sits in her lap instead and kisses her, getting to feel those soft lips smile against her own. She wants to kiss her breathless, wants to feel those strong arms around her and wants to hold her hands. She _wants_ her.

She wants her. Fuck.

“Uh, Earth to Dina?” Ellie mumbles, and Dina realizes she’s been done with her song for a few seconds now.

“That was amazing,” she blurts out, already springing off the bed. “You sound. Uh. That was beautiful. You were right, love that song. Hey, I lost track of the time, Eugene is meeting me at his for six, so I’m going to head over now, see you tomorrow.” She’s a convincing liar, usually, when she isn’t talking to someone she’s just realized she’s fallen hard for, when she isn’t flustered dumb.

“It’s only three-thirty.” Ellie scrunches her eyebrows- fucking hell, that should not be that adorable. _Hold it together, this is your best friend you’re thinking about. You’ve literally watched her decapitate people without even blinking_.

“No, yeah, I’ve really got to go. Sorry. Bye. Love-” Dina cuts herself off before she can say anything stupid and practically flies out the door. She hears Ellie call a quiet “‘bye” behind her, but she _cannot_ afford to turn back. She takes the long route home, completely lost in her head.

Okay, so that was new. Not bad new, just new, and where did that come from? She’s known Ellie for years and she’s never felt like this. The liking girls thing, she knew about that, obviously, she just hasn’t felt the need to tell anyone yet- there was Liv from the farm, and Rachel when they were younger, and probably a few others too- but the Ellie thing was coming as kind of a shock. God, she was going to have to let Jesse down easy.

She lets herself mull it over for the rest of the night, her best friend’s voice playing under everything she hears and the thought of her keeping her distracted. It starts making sense at around ten o’clock, when she lies down for the night, and she has a solid game plan by one.

So she has a crush on Ellie. She won’t take to subtle flirting well, never has- Dina’s seen her with girls before, all floundering conversation and her awkward, goofy smiles, and it’s endearing but thoroughly frustrating to watch- so she’s going to have to be a little more direct than she’d normally like.

Except that doesn’t work, either, because the one variable she didn’t account for was Ellie and exactly how thick her skull was. Dina had outright told her she was really hot _and_ said she would date her in the same sentence, for Christ’s sake, and while she had blushed deeply and stammered and grinned like an idiot when she thought Dina wasn’t looking, she would never say anything back, and what’s even the point of banter if you can’t get anything back?

It took several weeks before Dina decided to give in and make it all very fucking clear for her. There was no messing this up. It was literally foolproof, which was good, because Ellie was indeed proving herself to be a fool- all Dina had to do was get her to the dance, get her to dance _with_ her, and then (and this was crucial) kiss her, preferably hard, preferably a lot. She’d get a yes-or-no answer immediately. She would’ve just gone the easy route and told Ellie she loved her, but knowing Ellie, she would say something stupid like 'as a friend?' and completely ruin the moment.

Now she just had to do it and hope for the best.

**Author's Note:**

> hey! so this is my first time posting a fic, not just on ao3, but on any platform (i'm a longtime lurker and i've been writing since seventh grade, but i've never worked up the courage to put my own work out there). however, these two have my entire heart and soul right now, and i have roughly eight drafts lying around since before part ii's release, so with some encouragement from friends, i've decided to finally start exposing myself to the mortifying ordeal of being known or whatever. a massive thank you to the aforementioned friends, and i hope you enjoyed!! plenty more where this came from, i promise.
> 
> a quick fun fact: i personally envisioned the song ellie was playing to be "seven" from sleeping at last's album atlas: enneagram, so go give it a listen if you're so inclined and let me know if you were thinking of any particular song as you read! their music is probably gonna become a running theme in my writing- they're one of my favourite bands, and i just think all their lyrics are so gorgeous.
> 
> finally, if you want to yell at/with me somewhere else, i go by the same username over on tumblr! feel free to give me a shout anytime, i am a little awkward but always open to new friends <3


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